Passing Time
by 53N0
Summary: <html><head></head>What do you do when you have nothing to live for? Work? Play? Drink? Sleep around? Try to forget the dark times that have passed? How would you pass the time?</html>
1. Chapter 1

"He's out cold…"

"Well wake him up!"

"It doesn't work like that, not when he's fighting. Once he's out, he's out for a while."

"He's all we have left! Look! Sasuke is _dying_!"

"I know…! I know, but I can't find anything wrong with him! He's completely fine but he doesn't wake up!"

"…"

"…"

"What was that?"

"…"

"Obito!?"

"…My dimension being disconnected from our dimension."

"She can _do_ that!?"

"She's a _god_ Sakura."

"Sasuke-!? Don't get up! You need to heal!"

"You just said I'm dying and we have no way back."

"No, Obito could-!"

"Sakura…we're completely disconnected and my dimension is collapsing. Unless we can latch it onto something, anything, we will die here."

"…"

"Sasuke…? What are you doing!?"

"He won't accept this. He will win when he gets back."

"W- Sasuke!"

"Give it to him while I give him my half."

"No, Sasuke I can-!"

"No. You can't. You don't have enough chakra left, Obito needs all of his to make sure Naruto gets out of here, and I'm giving what I have left to make sure he wins when _she_ comes. Now give it to him."

"But-"

"Do it!"

* * *

><p>"Hey!" *Smack!*<p>

"Ow!"

A pair of mismatched eyes suddenly opened, one blue and the other black. They rolled over the area in a split second and locked onto the source of the small commotion…a rugged-looking man with black hair was rubbing his cheek while a well-endowed brunette woman stomped away angrily.

_A pervert._

"Jeez." The man said. "I was just staring, there's no law against that."

_Correction. A shameless pervert._

The owner of the eyes was a blond man, his hair was down and lifeless from years of neglect and his eyes had a dead shine to them. On each of his cheeks were three whisker-like birthmarks. He looked just good enough to be presentable, a clean white shirt and blue jeans being the minimum for his job as a cashier.

"One apple my good man." A voice said while said fruit was laid on the counter before him.

His eyes looked up from the counter and met with the black eyes of the man he labelled a pervert. The man looked even less presentable than he did; his hair was a mess, he hadn't shaved, his shirt was a bit dirty, and his pants were worn.

The mans eyes widened a bit before a frown marred his face, "What number are you?"

The blond raised a brow. "Number? What number?"

The man's eyes widened again and after a moment he shook his head with a relieved sigh. "Nothing, never-mind." He said while reaching into his pocket. "Like I said, one apple…"

The blond nodded, not even signifying the man with his name. Reaching over the counter he waited for the money to be laid in his hand…only to never feel the weight, after a moment he looked up to see the man staring inquisitively at him.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"…" The blond paused in deliberation and shrugged uncaringly. "Naruto."

The man dropped the change into his hand but at the same time brought his hand down into a forced handshake. "Seo Kaoru, i'll solve your problems with a price." He introduced.

Naruto raised a brow again while dismissively muttering, "A shameless, perverted, hobo?"

Seo flinched like he was backhanded, taking an actual step back in surprise. "You…" He began. "You sounded exactly like Miya." He muttered in horror.

Naruto didn't respond, not knowing or caring who he was being compared to. The argument could be made that he was being compared to a girl, if the name Miya was any indication, but would it matter? It was what the man…Seo thought, and he couldn't change his mind. "Your change." He said after completing the transaction and gathering the mans change.

"Oh…thanks?" Seo said while taking his change, it seemed a bit heavier than it should've been. Looking into his hand he had to hold back a grin, the coins were one set larger that the correct coins.

"You're welcome, come again." Naruto said in a blank tone, like he had been speaking for the entire conversation, now that Seo thought about it.

"Err…"

"…?"

"Are you okay?" Seo asked tentatively after a moment.

"…As well as one can be when everyone they love was murdered." Naruto replied nonchalant after a minute.

"…" Seo simply stared at Naruto. "Sorry for asking."

"No problem." Naruto replied.

Seo immediately took his apple and hauled-ass!

_God damn! I haven't met someone that depressing since…since I saw Miya after… _He didn't let the thought go any further, actually shaking his head to get rid of it. _Come on Seo, it's not the time to get down. Think of manly things; ninjas, dinosaurs, paintball! Okay maybe not that last one, not after what Uzume did. _He thought with a shudder.

He could still feel the phantom pains.

With a saddening thought forgotten, he continued on towards his home where his new favorite book was. It was set in a fantasy world ruled by badass ninjas who could control the elements. Sure it didn't have much plot besides that, but did it need any? It was porn for gods sakes!

He shook his head away from the angering thoughts about nit-picky critics labeling porn as bad because 'it doesn't have a real plot', if any of them paid attention they'd notice porn never had a real plot, at least in Japan.

_Ah, the glory of Hentai. _He thought, proud of his country's perversion.

Idly, he knew he would have to help that guy out. He might not be the most upstanding citizen, not by a long shot actually, but the guy did technically pay him when he bought the apple. It didn't help that he could relate to the kid in having lost someone.

"Well shit." He muttered to himself resignedly, "I'm going to be helping a guy that'll probably commit suicide."

Little did he know that he was well on his way to meeting the only remnant of his pornography-writing god.

* * *

><p>Naruto sat behind his counter quietly, unlike the others who worked at the store he had the idea to buy one, of course when he found out it was illegal to commit suicide the chair became a waste of money until he no longer felt like standing at work.<p>

_I should take up painting. _He decided. _It worked for Yakumo._

Despite popular belief, or what was popular belief back in the Elemental Nations, he never forgot a single friend he had made and made sure to find at least one day a year that he could visit them. Yakumo lived in the village and had actually been a close friend, at least until…

He shook his head, he couldn't be offing himself at work. "Excuse me." He heard, he looked up to see a girl with long, pink hair tied into a side-ponytail with two daisy-shaped clips. She wore a black, kimono-like shirt with one sleeve missing that was tied closed by a red sash, black shorts barely making it to decency, and black boots. She looked every bit like a young teenager. "I'd like to buy this." She all but demanded while holding a magazine over the counter.

Naruto took it and ran it through the machine with only a single glance at the cover, it was obviously a girls magazine but one thing stood out among the various captions: "How to get your man." no offense but she was flat as a board. He was about to state the prince when a credit card was all but shoved into his hands, he raised a brow at the girl's urgency but didn't protest, he simply did his job.

Once the girl pressed in her pin and the transaction finished, he held out the magazine which she immediately yanked from his hand. As she speed-walked away he shuddered, she might not be much upstairs but Damn. _Thats a nice ass._ How long had it been since he was with a woman? Too long, but at the same time, it was too soon.

The girl, feeling a pair of eyes on her, turned back around to see the cashier staring at her ass. Despite feeling better about herself due to one of the _rare_ lustful gazes she would get, she growled. "Do you have something to say?" She demanded.

Naruto paused, the temper, the hair, close to being flat as a board. She reminded him so much of…

"You just remind me of someone." They had a lot in common, even the fact that their behind was the only redeeming sexual quality they had.

"Who?" The girl demanded.

"My old friend…she was a lot like you. Pink hair, not very large chest-wise, but just like her your rear makes up for that." He stated.

The girl blushed and growled, pulling an arm back. She stayed in that position for a few moments before growling once more and stomping out the door. As she continued to stomp away she unknowingly began to ball her hands into fists…even though they were holding her magazine. It wasn't until the magazine tore in half that she realized what she was doing.

She sighed, stepping aside from the road and leaning on a building. She was Sekirei No. 105, Benitsubasa. A member, err, member-to-be of the Discipline Squad, just as soon as she found her Ashikabi. _Well, as long as I can find him by midnight._ If not, then she would be stuck trying to get the default Ashikabi chosen by their leader; Karatsuba.

She'd rather not have a homosexual as an Ashikabi, but if she had to then she'd do her best to change that detail. Still, she had until midnight to find her own Ashikabi…but she didn't react to anyone! She'd already spent days running around the city looking for her Ashikabi but nothing worked.

Then she headed to the grocer to get what she needed after she resigned herself to her fate, only for the cashier to insult and hit on her at the same time! It gave her mixed feelings about hitting him, and damn did she want to hit him, but something stopped her.

Was she…reacting? She placed a hand on her chest and immediately felt her heart beating quickly, this both saddened her and made her happy. Saddened her by reminding her how little she had to hide her heartbeat, and made her happy by letting her know she wouldn't have a gay Ashikabi. No offense to homosexuals but she wanted an Ashikabi she could have a relationship she was taught about with, which wouldn't work if one of them didn't agree to it.

Now she needed to formulate a plan to make her Ashikabi hers…but first a call to MBI. It wouldn't do to have Karatsuba interrupt and kill her Ashikabi.

* * *

><p>Naruto sighed as he finally left work, he had nothing better to do so he volunteered to do the night-shift…again. He worked the day-shift and the night-shift, with only the graveyard and morning shifts being when he slept. He worked for over half the day, mostly because he took naps during his hours and nobody tried to steal from the store he worked at.<p>

They learned their lesson the first time when the robbers were hung on the lampposts outside by their underwear with their hands and legs tied behind them in a position that only worsened the wedgies. He may want to kill himself but he'd be damned before some weak-ass killed him.

Old instincts arose for the second time that day when he caught a person that lunged at him from behind, upon closer inspection it was the pink-haired girl from earlier. "…Yes?" He asked.

"Err…" Benitsubasa couldn't find a way to explain herself without giving away the Sekirei plan, it wasn't widely known but if you told your Ashikabi about the plan before being winged, you'd be scheduled for immediate execution by the Disciplinary Squad. "Kiss me?" She tried.

"…No." Naruto denied before letting her go and proceeding to walk away.

Now, Benitsubasa couldn't take much before she lost her temper, but she kept calm. Who the hell would accept a kiss from a stranger in the middle of the night? "Please?"

"You aren't legal." Naruto stated as a matter of fact. He himself was twenty and this girl hardly looked seventeen, he would be arrested.

"I'm above the law." Was the pink-haired Sekirei's reply.

"No one is above the law…" Naruto responded, before stopping in his tracks. "…No one but _her_."

Benitsubasa stopped and stood stock still, the way he referred to…whoever that woman was…reminded her exactly how Karatsuba referred to her old teammate Yume. Hatred and grudging respect, but mostly hatred. For a moment she played with the thought of kissing him by surprise in that instant, but something told her that wouldn't be very good for her health.

After a solid minute Naruto began walking again with Benitsubasa following suit, "Knock it off." He ordered.

"Just kiss me." The pinkette ordered in return.

"When you're legal." Was the rebuttal.

"I am legal, by technicality." A year was too long to wait for winging damn it! Why should she wait a full year before she could get something when she could just get it now!?

In her anger, she decided to take what she wanted. A quick few steps was all it took to catch up to the blond and it was simple to force him to turn around, he tried to grab her and stop her, but she used her superior strength to shrug him off and grab him by the collar of his shirt.

Naruto was surprised when the girl actually sped up to match his speed and force him to turn around, then he was flabbergasted when she managed to shrug him off like it was nothing.

_I must be out of shape._ He thought. _Last time I fought was three years ago so…well that's new._

Now Naruto was amazed when fucking _wings_ made of energy spewed from the girl's back when she kissed him. Aside from that, the girl's kissing was sloppy and she tried miserably to force her tongue into his mouth, he doubted she'd ever kissed anyone beforehand. With a mental groan he pushed her away from himself, "What was that?" He demanded.

The girl didn't answer, dazed by something. Whether it was the energy wings or her first kiss being a complete failure he didn't know, but he did know one thing. The TV across the street suddenly turned on without a single person doing anything, now during the day he'd be fine with this but in the middle of the night when the store was closed? His old fear of ghosts began acting up…

So he hauled-ass home, sure he left that girl standing there like a retard but it didn't matter. There was a fucking ghost and he didn't want to be anywhere near it.

* * *

><p><strong>Now, rather than a harem of whoever, Naruto will end up with 1-3 girls. That's it, end of story, no asking for more and I've already picked who. <strong>

**By now you guessed that they lost, I've got nothing to say besides the fact that Naruto and Sasuke literally shouldn't have won that fight. Kaguya could've just ended it in the lava dimension using her disintegration bones, she just had to open up a portal and start jabbing, just one of them would've been enough. **

**Finally, Naruto will be much more lifelike in this story but at the same time he'll be mixed with his cannon personality. An example is that he was friends with Yakumo, you don't just forget someone who could alter reality with a genjutsu. The argument could be made that he could've had her use a single genjutsu on him and alter reality so that Obito was dead as well as all of the Akatsuki, but I doubt she has the chakra for that and Naruto wouldn't want her to die due to having his cannon personality.**


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto glanced up at the sky with a bored expression, grey clouds covered the sky giving the capital a somewhat sad atmosphere. It made him feel slightly better though. He turned his head downward and saw the crowds of people surrounding the apartment complex he lived in.

"What are they looking at?" He wondered.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" A voice suddenly yelled, the blond turned around to see a man dressed in business clothing. He wasn't the one that spoke, no, that was the smiling man talking through the laptop he was carrying.

Raising a brow slightly, he responded. "Yes?"

The man's smile became a bit strained. "Please step away from the ledge." He asked politely.

Naruto looked down at the ledge he stood on before looking back at the laptop. "Why?" He asked, then remembered something he saw a small while ago. "Wait…aren't you the head of that small pharmacy company? Minaka Hiroto?"

"Yes, but that isn't the point." Minaka answered. "Now step away from the ledge."

Naruto nodded and stepped back from the ledge…oh wait.

"You idiot!" He could hear Minaka yell, at the same time that the crowd many stories underneath him gasped as one. He stopped paying them any mind as he shifted his body to be completely vertical, then swinging his legs as one to flip himself upright and facing building that was previously behind him. He shot his legs out to touch the building and even without chakra they gripped the surface, his body arced around the point his feet touched the building and once he was at a proper angle he kicked off and grabbed onto a streetlight. Using his momentum to spin around the light he slowed his descent until he simply spun on the floor.

_I'm going to need new shoes._ He thought to himself as he stopped spinning. Not caring for the amazed crowd he started to walk back inside and up the stairs towards the roof. As much as he'd like to, it would be rude to commit suicide mid-conversation.

XXX XXX

"Please continue." Naruto said as he once again stood on the roof.

Both the man holding the laptop and Minaka himself jumped at his voice, the man whipping around to face him with a shocked expression. "You're alive!?" Both men asked at once.

Naruto nodded. "It's rude to die mid-conversation." At least he guessed, it never happened to him before and he didn't know if it was in fact rude, but he was pretty sure it would be.

"How did you survive!?" Minaka demanded.

Naruto didn't answer, simply staring at the man unblinkingly.

"…Somebody get me a recording of what just happened!" Minaka demanded of someone out of sight. He then looked back at Naruto through the screen and scowled. "Mister Uzumaki, I'd like you to know that you can't keep pulling stunts like that anymore."

"Why?"

"Because if you die, so does Benitsubasa." Minaka said sternly. "Do you remember a pink-haired girl from a week ago?"

Naruto thought it over and nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you remember when she kissed you?" A nod. "That tied her to you. From that moment forward your fates became the same. I cannot stress this enough to you so I'll say it as bluntly as possible." The man sighed. "If you die, she dies." It wasn't completely true but all things considered with the girls extremely odd bond it might be.

Whatever the blond was, he wasn't an Ashikabi. All theories and projections showed that a bond shouldn't be strong when made with someone so suicidal yet it trumped the projected strongest! He could only imagine what it would be like if the blond was happy and caring!

"So if I die, so does that girl who I hardly even know?" Naruto asked.

"…Yes." Well there was a snag in he plan to study the bond, the two hardly knew one another and the blond could commit suicide anyway.

"Find a way around it." The blond informed before turning and walking down the stairs. "When you do I'll continue trying."

"It's not that simple." Minaka disagreed.

Naruto stopped just within sight and turned enough for them to see his left eye, gone was the black iris, in its place a red one with three comma-like markings spinning within it. "Then I'll just do it regardless." He said before turning back and continuing his stride

"…You saw that right?" Minaka asked.

"Yes boss."

"Good, you can come back now."

"Thanks boss." The man carrying the laptop said before closing it and tentatively walking down the stairs.

XXX XXX

Naruto sighed as he entered his apartment, "Now I can't even die." He muttered despondently. Why did everything seem to get in the way of him dying, just a few years back when he fought constant battles to the death the world seemed to want to put him down.

Now in this world he could even get the job halfway done before someone or something stopped him from offing himself. If he tried jumping off of a building people would try to catch him, if he tried slitting his throat something inevitably broke and a projectile object would knock the knife out of his hands, even the time he tried shooting himself something knocked the bullet out of the air!

He sighed. "I'll wait so that this girl doesn't have to die with me at least, I might not know her but damn if anyone deserves that." With a last sigh he sat cross-legged on the floor and began to meditate. Though it was extremely small due to no one actually being able to use chakra and thus not releasing very much upon their death, he could sense the natural chakra in the air.

A misconception he had when he'd first arrived was that _she_ had created chakra, that was false. The only real difference between _her_ and anyone else was that _she_ had eaten the fruit of the Shinjū, which gave her an unfathomable amount of chakra and the ability to use it. Chakra was never _hers_ in the first place, all the claim _she_ had to it was being the first to actually learn to wield it. Even in this world where no one could use it, there was chakra and where there was chakra there was natural chakra.

It was with a deep, calming breath that he began to take in the natural energy of the world and mixed it in with his own chakra. A small breeze began to circle him and grow larger, showing the area of his senses. It suddenly stopped and pulsed outward in a gust that blew his windows open and continued growing in strength and speed, though no longer spinning as to keep a tornado from forming.

"Now…where are you?" He murmured to himself contemplatively.

* * *

><p>Minaka stared unblinkingly at a screen showing Benitsubasa's training by Karatsuba, sure being trained by the ever-violent Black Sekirei was extremely dangerous but his curiosity about her oddly powerful bond was too much to allow him to care.<p>

The pink-haired girl in question was currently on her hands and knees, covered in dozens of cuts both big and small. Standing before her was a bored Karasuba holding her blade loosely in one hand, wearing her uniform signifying her as a member of the original disciplinary squad.

In but a moment Minaka went from cool to panicked as Karasuba lifted her blade high and tightened her grip. "Stop her!" He ordered. "We need more data on her bond!"

"Sir, there's an energy discharge heading this way!" A scientist monitoring a sensory device notified him.

"What!?" Was Miya finally trying to kill him? "Where did it come from?"

"From the east!" The scientist answered. "It'll hit us in three…two…one!" Everyone in the observation room braced themselves for an impact but after a few moments of nothing happening they turned as one to the scientist who was looking at his machine. "It's…it passed us? No wait, it's all converging on something?"

Minaka scowled. "Converging on what!?"

*Clang!* Once again as one everyone in the room turned back to the screen showing the spar between Benitsubasa and Karasuba and were surprised by what happened.

XXX XXX

Benitsubasa coughed hard, some blood flowing out of her mouth as she took heavy breaths. She lifted her head up to see her opponent holding her blade high in the air. "Looks like getting a different Ashikabi didn't mean much did it?" She said, "All it got you was a weird bond and me fighting all out…any last words?"

Benitsubasa scowled angrily up at the silver-haired woman standing over her grimly with her blade held high as if she was a headsman. She didn't even get to say a word before the blade began its descent. Was this seriously all she got after all the trouble she had gone through to find her Ashikabi? A bloody death due to some irregularity in her bond?

_…Fuck that._ She thought, dropping her head just barely missing the sword's descent slow to a snails pace. _I didn't go through all that trouble just to die before I could even get my first mission!_ A foreign strength began to build up within her and she balled her hands into fists, her iris changing color to orange.

She lifted her head and shot up, slapping away the sword that was nowhere close to where it should've been and actually breaking it to pieces. She then continued by slugging her opponent across the face, somehow sending her flying whereas earlier she couldn't so much as make her budge. It was then that she realized she was different, but she didn't care.

"…Well damn, the little birdie actually has some fight in her!" Karasuba shouted as she flipped to her feet midair. Once she landed she skidded a few feet before launching back at her surprising toy.

Benitsubasa was surprised again when she saw Karasuba moving slow enough that she could see. A minute earlier she was just a blur that meant getting cut. "I don't know what's going on…" She dropped into her fighting stance as she had done dozens of times before that day. "…But I'm not going to die here!" With that she charged at the woman.

Karasuba grinned as her opponent blurred ever so slightly to her. Still, she swung at the correct time to impale her opponent due to raw momentum.

Benitsubasa saw the swing and, without actually knowing what she was doing, lunged between the feet of her opponent. Once she was clear she planted a hand onto the floor and used it to swing her legs upward and around to land a solid kick to the back.

XXX XXX

"Someone tell me what the fuck is going on!" Minaka demanded of his fellow scientists. How the hell was Karasuba of all people getting her ass handed to her!?

"Her bond is absorbing the energy and distributing it throughout her body! Her mental capacity shot through the roof and her reflexes tripled!" A random scientist announced.

"What!? That's impossible!" A thought occurred to him. "Someone find out where that pulse came from and what it was made of, now!"

"On it!"

XXX XXX

Naruto frowned. _Something absorbed my Senjutsu chakra?_ He pulsed his sensory once more but nothing absorbed it this time, but at the same time he couldn't sense the girl that was supposedly connected to him… _Did she somehow absorb it?_

It wasn't possible. No one was that in tune with nature. He himself was a prodigy like no other in Senjutsu and he couldn't sense anyone in the entire city with so much as a slight affinity for Senjutsu, and he'd been searching so that he could hopefully pass on the mantle of Toad Sage before he died. Now for a girl to kiss him, supposedly become linked to him, and, if he was right, absorb his Senjutsu out of nowhere?

It would explain why he couldn't sense her though, she would be using his own energy and you can't sense yourself no matter how hard you tried. It was like trying to feel something that you've felt your whole life and actually forgot was there. You were too used to it to even attempt to feel it as something different from your own normal, which was how sensing worked, differing things from your normality.

As one of the few people who could sense through nature, he was one of the best sensors in the world. With nature as your normality anything that isn't natural can be sensed.

Now a girl he hardly knew was running around with a skill which gave her incredible durability, strength, and reflexes…and he couldn't sense her at all.

"Well shit." He muttered. "I hope she doesn't misuse it."

XXX XXX

"It came from the location of her Ashikabi sir. The energy is unidentifiable, it's nothing we've ever found and it wasn't previously cataloged by Sekirei!"

Minaka scowled as he watched the fight between the two Sekirei of the disciplinary squad. Every attack that Karasuba made as dodged, blocked, or countered with perfect timing. Benitsubasa seemed to be moving on autopilot now as her eyes were glazed, he noted they were a different color. "Why doesn't Benitsubasa say anything?"

"She's no longer in control. There's so much sensory input that her consciousness had shut down, she's just reacting to Karasuba the way she was born to." A scientist monitoring both combatants health and mental stability.

A grin slowly began to form on Minaka's face. _How fascinating…an unknown form of energy that is gathered through Benitsubasa's bond and spread through her body to enhance her fighting abilities, and an Ashikabi with no real papers._ He sighed, there were more pressing things to deal with for now but he would get to the bottom of this. "Stop the fight and get Benitsubasa to an examination room, I want data recorded on everything about her while that energy is within her."

"I suspect you don't want Takami to hear of this either?" A scientist asked.

"No, she'll probably try to drag her Ashikabi here and get answers by force. We can't take that approach right now." Minaka answered before walking out of the room.

Things were certainly turning out to be interesting with Benitsubasa's Ashikabi.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, it's a bit rushed I guess, at least it feels rushed to me. Anyway, a bit on how Naruto's bonds will be different. Each of the few bonds Naruto makes with a Sekirei will give them access to one of his power-ups, Benitsubasa gets Senjutsu since she's a melee-fighter and I think it'll compliment her well. <strong>

**Now, Minaka is keeping this a secret from Takami because of reasons I feel. I get the feeling that she cares for the Sekirei to an extent that she would make sure she knows everything she needs to know about them, so naturally Benitsubasa having an odd bond would make her have Naruto dragged in for interrogation. I doubt that that's how Minaka works with things he's interested so it's a secret. **

**Also, has anyone else noticed that fact? Hagoromo taught everyone about chakra but Kaguya claimed that it was hers…since Hagoromo taught everyone that implies they all had chakra in the first place so Kaguya is pretty much just using 'finders keepers' logic on why chakra is hers.**


End file.
